Mining plans draw criticism

Conservation groups and the Greens have expressed outrage at reports the Government is planning to allow mining in 7000 hectares of high-value conservation land in the West Coast's Paparoa National Park, Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula.

The Government last year carried out a stocktake of minerals in the conservation estate, and intends taking parts of it out of the schedule in the Crown Minerals Act which protect it from mining.

Forest and Bird spokesman Kevin Hackwell said the organisation had "learnt "of three areas to be named in a delayed discussion document as areas the Government wanted to allow mining in.

The areas were:

* Te Ahumata plateau on Great Barrier Island (about 700ha);

* Otahu Ecological Area (396ha) and Parakawai Geological Reserve (70ha) near Whangamata and 2500ha near Thames township; and

* Eastern Paparoa National Park, near Inangahua on the West Coast (3000ha)

Mr Hackwell said also under the Schedule 4 stocktake, nearly half a million hectares of other prime conservation areas will be surveyed for mining potential, including Kahurangi National Park, Mt Aspiring National Park, Stewart Island's Rakiura National Park and nearly all the conservation land in the Coromandel Peninsula.

Green MPs expressed outrage at the plans.

Green MP Catherine Delahunty said plans to open up a protected area above Thames to mining threatened the security of the entire township.

GNS Science released a report in 2006 cataloguing the risks to Thames Township and its hospital from debris-flows and flooding.

"It is unthinkable that John Key's Government would knowingly increase the risk to lives and property out of greed, especially when the main beneficiaries will be foreign mining companies," Ms Delahunty said.

Another Green MP, Kevin Hague, said plans to punch holes into Paparoa National Park for profit were a misguided assault on New Zealand's clean green image.

"The South Island's Paparoa National Park was set aside in 1987. The Park is visually spectacular and home to rare and endangered native birds. It is most famous for the blowholes at Punakaiki. The Prime Minister is pretending that somehow there is a net conservation benefit in mining these areas; that we have to destroy them in order to save them. This is an Orwellian nonsense,' Mr Hague said.

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has refused to comment on speculation about what areas the Government was looking at until the discussion document was released.

The document's release has been delayed a number of times with reports that the Government had scaled back its original plans.

Mr Hackwell says all the areas have outstanding ecological and landscape value, which is why they have been protected from mining.

"We're not talking about gorse-covered hillsides with the odd tree in these areas. We are talking about rare native Hochstetter's frogs, endangered brown teal, mature forest and pristine wilderness areas," he said.

Prime Minister John Key has said the Government is not looking at massive open cast mines in pristine areas and suggested money raised from mining royalties could be use to help improve the environment.

The value of minerals in conservation land has been put at about $140 billion, but it could be much more than that.

Schedule 4 was created by the previous National government in 1997 to safeguard especially important conservation land, but large areas have been placed under the schedule since it was created.